Floyd the barber told Andy Taylor that Calvin Coolidge was the one who said 'everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it'. If my memory is right Andy responded that Calvin didn't say everything.
Weather has become a not item in the news over the years. I can remember watching the evening news and weather would be the last thing we heard about; kind of like an after thought. Now you see a lot of television news coverage lead off with the weather.
Over the past few weeks as we watched Tropical Storm Gordon come through the Gulf of Mexico with Hurricane Florence and tropical storms Isaac and Helene close behind and a tropical wave developing in the Caribbean in front, weather becomes a lead story in most news casts.
You can bet the house that the news broadcast up and down the eastern coast of the United States put all other news on the backburner as Florence set its bullseye in the Carolina region.
That storm is massive. Not only with its windspeed, but with its width and its slow-moving personality that will not only cause wind damage but will dump a lot of rain. I read where some experts are expecting up to 30 inches of rain in some parts. I can't imagine.
This Tuesday I attended the 911 breakfast sponsored by Little Escambia Baptist Church where the church membership hosted first responders in memory of those who died in the 911 terrorist attack. I had several people ask me if I remembered where I was and what I was doing when the planes started hitting the twin towers in New York. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was heading to work and Rick and Bubba talked about the first hit. I got to the office and heard about the second hit. I went back to the house to turn on the TV. I later traveled to Brewton and watched a group of men huddled around a television set at the old Buck and Bass shop. Everybody was in shock.
There are things we always remember. You ask many in the older generation and they can tell you exactly what they were doing and where they were when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. I heard tales of movies being interrupted at theaters with someone telling the audience what had just happened.
The next generation can tell you exactly what they were doing and where they were when news came that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas. It's etched in their minds.
I was about 5 or 6 years old when JFK got killed. I don't remember a lot, but I do remember the reactions from my parents, my grandparents and parents of my friends in the neighborhood.
All we knew was something bad had happened and the Dearing Place group rallied up and hid in the bushes to attack the person who shot the president if he should come that way.
Also this week as we near the anniversary of Hurricane Ivan, I've been asked about that memory as well. It's another that etched in my mind. I think those questions came because of all the storms brewing with questions of whether or not we will be hit again.
The memory that's etched in my mind involves a mixed-breed hound dog that was lying in the floor of the kitchen for several hours as I listened to the radio broadcasts out of Pensacola. He hadn't move. A little before 3 a.m. he jumped up, took off down the hall and climbed under a bed. Two seconds later the first limb came through my ceiling.
Hurricane season kicked off at the first of June, but Ivan hit us in September of 2004 and about a year later Dennis hit us in July. So it's been about 14 years and I fear there are a lot of people who have forgotten how bad such storms can be.
I agree with Escambia County Emergency Management Director David Adams that neither the weather people nor the news media need to create panic every time a tropical wave pops up in the Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean Sea. It's like that old tale of crying wolf; people tend to let their guard down after several false alarms.
There's an old saying about learning history so we won't repeat our same mistakes. That fits well in terms of dealing with bad weather.
Hopefully the current disturbances in the Atlantic and Caribbean won't cause us any harm, but we owe it to ourselves to stay tuned and listen as the storms develop. Stay tuned and stay informed.
